Make your own cereal bars recipe

This recipe for make your own cereal bars is a tried and tested favourite in our household. They are easy to make, cost-effective and so delicious that you will want to eat the whole batch. That’s why my cereal bars recipe is a double batch, because if you are going through the effort of baking, you might as well make enough to last a few days. They even freeze for up to 2 months, so breakfasts and snacks are sorted for weeks ahead.

Healthy snacks

This recipe was inspired from a book I bought on how to cut your cholesterol. It was an Australian book, and included information on diet, exercise and contained a few recipes to get you going on living healthy.

I changed the recipe slightly to accommodate for local ingredients and replaced the margarine with butter. Play around with ingredients, and substitute the cranberries for apricots or other dried fruit. I sometimes add a tablespoon of chai seeds or other nuts to keep it interesting.

This is by far my favourite recipe for cereal bars. I have tried a bunch of others, but they tend to be too dry or contain too many seeds. My son refuses to eat seed balls as, according to him, seeds are for birds. The irrefutable logic of a 4 year old!

Making your own bars is cost-effective and you have control over the ingredients. By avoiding store bought bars and storing your own bars in re-usable plastic or glass containers, you also reduce your single-use plastic consumption.

Cereal bars recipe

This is a big batch of cereal bars. You are welcome to half the ingredients if you prefer, but since they can be frozen, why not make enough to last for a few weeks. Though they are so tasty, they might be finished before they even reach the freezer.

I use a baking tray to make a thinner batch of bars, and cut them into bigger squares. You can make thicker and narrower bars or smaller squares if you prefer. It’s up to you, just use your preferred tray or what you have available. I found if I cut them too small, we ended eating way more than the bigger squares.

Ingredients

4 T (40g) sunflower seeds

4 T (40g) pumpkin seeds

4 T (40g) linseeds

3 T honey

4 bananas

40g dried cranberries

200g butter

200g pitted dried dates

300g rolled oats

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a baking tray or square cake tin, depending on your desired thickness of the bars.

Roughly chop the seeds and dates.

Peel and mash the bananas.

Melt the butter and stir in the honey.

Mix together all ingredients and transfer to the baking tray. Smooth out mixture to desired thickness.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. My husband likes them when they have crispy edges.

Cool and cut into bars. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.